Baskin

This Turkish movie starts out very strong, quickly establishing the characters and relationships between the leads, before going down the rabbit hole of bugshit insanity. While nothing particularly original, I will commend this film on its use of practical effects and imagery to create a very surreal and nightmare-esque experience throughout. Much of the last act is reliant upon actors with very real physical deformities to help sell the disquieting scenes and imagery. Unfortunately, this film is a prime example of style over substance, as it goes over-the-top with its spectacle, but none of it really adds up at the end. The photography and direction is great, the imagery disturbed, but the narrative doesn't really make a lot of sense, and there's a last minute twist that is downright nonsensical. The last act alternates between torture and body-horror, with some disquieting imagery and notions fluttering around as almost a secondary afterthought. I spent a bit of time wondering whether what I was watching was a hallucination, staged or actually part of the film as depicted. While there is ultimately an answer, the entire conclusion and last act is a letdown. This movie seems very proud of its presentation, but sacrifices the script in favor of going over-the-top with horrific imagery.

C